Hand-held cereal bars are well known in the art. These portable foods are consumed as a meal substitute or snack. These cereal bars ideally would provide nutritional value without sacrificing taste and flavor, as well as possess a reasonable shelf life during which the texture remains chewy without being sticky, hard, or crumbly. However, achieving all of these goals has been problematic in the prior cereal bars.
For instance, a protein source is usually included in the cereal bars for nutritional value. However, the use of large amounts of soy proteins in cereal bars tends to impart an undesirable off-flavor. Milk protein products generally are more organoleptically acceptable if not beneficial flavor imparting. On the other hand, many useful milk protein products are water-soluble. Water absorption by or dissolution into water by the milk proteins over an extended period before consumption can lead to moisture migration, protein hydration problems, and hardness over time. The prior art has not satisfactorily proposed how to incorporate milk protein products into cereal bars.
Cereal bars have been known which can contain a dairy protein product in a binder system used as a matrix to form the bar. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,431,112 to Durst describes a food bar using a binder providing a structural matrix for discrete edible particles described as cereal particles, in which the binder is obtained as a water-based dispersion including a film-forming ingredient described as nonfat milk solids (e.g., sodium caseinate, among others) that is solubilized in the aqueous binder dispersion that is used in that form or in a spray dried form thereof, in which the binder is then mixed with cereal flakes from which food bars are formed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,669 to Kelly et al. describes high protein fat-occluded food compositions used as a binder to bind together cereal particles in a food or breakfast bar product. The binder composition includes protein, fat, and carbohydrate ingredients in which the protein ingredient preferably is either a dairy protein product (e.g., nonfat milk solids or sodium caseinate) or a vegetable protein product. The binder composition is prepared by initially preparing a dry blend of the carbohydrate and protein, which is mixed with molten fat at elevated temperature with mixing, and the resulting binder composition is then blended with cereal particles at a blending temperature above the crystallization temperature df the fat in the range of 100–140° F., and the resulting cereal-binder mixture is formed into bar shapes. In a preferred embodiment, the resulting crude mixture of molten fat and the dry blend of the carbohydrate and protein is milled to reduce the protein and carbohydrate particle sizes; the milled binder composition is then reheated and subjected to further mixing to enhance the fluidity of the mixture, before it is combined with the cereal pieces at the blending temperature above the crystallization temperature of the fat.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,238 to Hitchner describes a composite food product comprising a dual-texture, low water activity binder having at least one-food flavoring material distributed therein, and comprising two binder materials. A crisp binder material comprising a whipped protein foam and a protein foam stabilizer and a chewy binder material comprising a gelled solution of gelatin in glycerol were used. The crisp binder material is a whipped aqueous solution containing sodium caseinate, soy protein isolate, gelatin, or other proteins that can be foamed from an aqueous solution.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,903,308 to Ode describes a food bar made by distributing a sweetened low-moisture whole milk product as a binder over a cereal layer of toasted granola cereal. The milk product is described as sweetened condensed milk. U.S. Pat. No. 3,582,336 to Rasmussen describes cereal particles encapsulated with an oil-milk-sugar mixture in which sufficient cladding constituent can be applied to render the product in fixed bar-like form.
Cereal and milk bars also are known that have included milk powder as a protein source in a cereal layer or a filling layer. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,917,861 to Viera et al. describes a laminated, multi-phase food bar including a cereal-binder mixture forming a cereal layer on at least one side of a filling layer. The cereal-binder mixture has cereal particles bonded together by a fat-based binder system consisting essentially of a triglyceride-sugar matrix and colloidal silicon dioxide particles used as a fat gelling agent. The cereal layer is laminated on one or both sides of a filling layer that contains triglyceride-hydrogenated vegetable oil, colloidal silicon dioxide, and sugar. A protein source, such as soy protein isolate or extract and egg whites may be included in the cereal and/or filling layers for nutritional balance. The '861 patent describes a bar including 5 and 20 parts by weight dry milk solids, sodium caseinate and/or soy bean extract.
WO 0122835 A1 to Froseth et al. describes a cereal bar that includes two outer cereal layers, and an inner milk filling layer including milk powder as an ingredient. Protein nuggets are dispersed with RTE cereal pieces in the cereal layers. The nuggets are described as high protein rice pieces and texturized vegetable protein made from soybeans.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,543,262 to Michnowski describes a high protein, low or no lactose snack bar having a core composed of a corn syrup, a confectioner's coating material which is normally solid at room temperature, a wetting agent, a vitamin and mineral premix, at least one high carbohydrate content source, and at least one high protein content source such as caseinate, soy protein, and others. A chocolate surface coating and a granular granola topping are then applied.
Cereal bars are also known that are made without milk products. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,821,443 to Halladay et al. describes a cereal bar containing at least one filling layer composed of an oil normally liquid at body temperature, sugar, and a synergistic combination of protein source, such as soy protein and egg white solids.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,488 to Cook et al. describes a food bar combining at least two different polyhydric alcohols in varying ratios comprising a sugar alcohol and either glycerol or propylene glycol with dry ingredients, shortening, and sugar.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,303,163 to Wu describes a process for preparing a hand-held snack item in which a first edible, heat-sensitive food material to an initial formed hand-held food item selected from a granola bar, cereal bar, grain cake, or breakfast bar, to form a preliminarily coated food item, to which a second edible food coating material is applied which protects the first edible, heat sensitive material during a subsequent heat treatment conducted at from about 35–350° C.
None of the above-listed references describes cereal and milk bars that include a system for confining moisture migration and protein hydration to discrete sites distributed throughout the bar.
The present inventive method and product thereof significantly reduces, and in some cases essentially eliminates, the problems and shortcomings of the prior practice by including particulates within a cereal bar that effectively confine moisture migration and protein hydration so that the bar retains a more desirable texture over time, among other benefits.